THE US military has designated Julian
Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States - the
same legal category as the al-Qaeda terrorist network and
the Taliban insurgency.

Declassified US Air Force
counter-intelligence documents, released under US
freedom-of-information laws, reveal that military personnel
who contact WikiLeaks or WikiLeaks supporters may be at risk
of being charged with "communicating with the enemy", a
military crime that carries a maximum sentence of death. More>>

Ahead of Julian Assange’s address to
the UN on Wednesday 26th September 2012 we are publishing
some facts about the US investigation and Grand Jury into
WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. This includes facts on the
investigation and legal cases into Assange and WikiLeaks and
the persecution of the organisation, its founder and
associates by US officials and government
departments.

________________________________________

Scale
of the US Grand Jury Investigation of WikiLeaks

The US
Government has stood up and coordinated a joint interagency
criminal investigation of Wikileaks comprised of a
partnership between the Department of Defense (DOD)
including: CENTCOM; SOUTHCOM; the Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA); Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA);
Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA); US Army Criminal
Investigation Division (CID) for USFI (US Forces Iraq) and
1st Armored Division (AD); US Army Computer Crimes
Investigative Unit (CCIU); 2nd Army (US Army Cyber Command);
Within that or in addition, three military intelligence
investigations were conducted. Department of Justice (DOJ)
Grand Jury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
Department of State (DOS) and Diplomatic Security Service
(DSS). In addition, Wikileaks has been investigated by the
Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI),
Office of the National CounterIntelligence Executive
(ONCIX), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); the House
Oversight Committee; the National Security Staff Interagency
Committee, and the PIAB (President’s Intelligence Advisory
Board). LINK Transcriptsee
also

________________________________________

Department
of Justice

US Attorney General, Eric Holder said on
November 29, 2010: “’To the extent that we can find
anybody who was involved in the breaking of American law,
who put at risk the assets and the people I have described,
they will be held responsible; they will be held
accountable,’ Holder said at a news conference on another
topic. He called the WikiLeaks probe ’an active, ongoing
criminal investigation.’” LINK

US Attorney General, Eric Holder
on December 6, 2010 remarked that “there were significant
things” that he “personally authorized” regarding
Wikileaks. Holder called the WikiLeaks probe an “active,
ongoing criminal investigation.’” Holder said, “We
have a very serious, active ongoing investigation that is
criminal in nature.” Holder said, that the Espionage Act
of 1917 is “certainly something that might play a role,
but there are other statutes, other tools that we have our
disposal.” LINK

US Attorney General, Eric Holder
said on December 6, 2010: “It is an ongoing investigation.
I don’t want to get into exactly what I authorized, but I
can say that I personally authorized a number of things last
week and I think that is an indication of the seriousness
with which we take this matter and the highest level
involvement in the Unites States Department of Justice. With
regard to all the tactics that we can do or can use to
ameliorate the consequences of these actions I don’t want
to get into those as well, but we will do everything that we
can both to hold people accountable, and to minimize the
harm that will befall American people.” LINK

US Attorney General, Eric Holder
said on December 6, 2010 declined to comment on what the US
Department of Justice capabilities were: “Well as I said,
I don’t want to get into what our capabilities are. At
this point I will simply say what I have just said. We have
a very serious criminal investigation that is underway, and
we are looking at all the things that we can do to try to
stem the flow of this information.” LINK

US Attorney for the Eastern
District of Virginia, Neil Macbride, in charge of the Grand
Jury investigating Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, cites the
Attorney General’s November 29, 2010 statement confirming
the existence of a Grand Jury investigation of WikiLeaks in
the US Government’s Twitter “In Re Application of the
USA For an Order Pursuant to 18 USC § 2703(d): “The
Attorney General publicly confirmed the existence of an
investigation into disclosures of classified information
made by WikiLeaks on November 29, 2010.” LINK

Department of Justice
spokesperson Dean Boyd confirms that the Department of
Justice investigation is ongoing to AFP reporter Dan De Luce
on June 30, 2010: "There continues to be an investigation
into the WikiLeaks matter." LINK

________________________________________

Grand
Jury Testimony

When Pfc. Bradley Manning’s defense
offered the Court two sample portions of “unclassified”
Grand Jury testimony, in order to illustrate to the military
judge the kind of evidence they were receiving from the US
Government, the lead counsel for the US Government jumped
up, interrupted the Court, and instructed the Judge that the
“unclassified” rolling black redactions were still under
seal, and under the military judge’s “protective order
and an Article 3 Judge’s protective order and should be
sealed and not held around in Court, and should be stamped
as such.” Major Ashden Fein said that “portions” of
the Grand Jury testimony were provided to the defense only
for limited purposes by US Assistant Attorneys in
Alexandria, Virginia investigating Julian Assange and
others. LINK TranscriptSee alsoSee alsoSee
also

________________________________________

Federal
Bureau of Investigation

“Private First Class Manning is
a piece of the FBI File,” said lead US Government military
prosecutor at the June 6, 2012 Article 39(a) hearing of US
v. Pfc. Bradley Manning. The FBI file, Major Fein said, was
“42,135 pages or 3,475 documents” the entirety of which
is classified. The US Government said that Manning only
represents 8,741 pages or 636 different documents in that
FBI investigative file. The FBI file does not include the
Grand Jury testimony. LINK TranscriptSee also

On July 28, 2010, one month
after Pfc. Bradley Manning was arrested in Iraq, the FBI
opened an “official” criminal investigation into the
editor and chief of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, partnering
with the joint investigation of the US Defense Department
and the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security
Service. LINK

The Department of Defense
partnered with the FBI and the Department of Justice to
ensure that the investigation goes “wherever it needs to
go.” The Secretary of Defense said, “having the FBI
involved as a partner was very important in terms of leaving
open the full scope of a possible investigation” of
criminal charges against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. LINK

________________________________________

Grand
Jury Subpoenas

There are two publicly reported subpoenas
for the WikiLeaks Grand Jury:

Grand Jury’s number is “10”
standing for the year it began. “GJ” which is Grand Jury
and then 3793. “3” is the Conspiracy Statute in the
United States. “793” is the Espionage
Statute.

According to the two publicly reported subpoenas
cited above the Grand Jury investigating WikiLeaks and
Julian Assange in Alexandria, VA is investigating: "possible
violations of federal criminal law involving, but not
necessarily limited to conspiracy to communicate or transmit
national defense information in violation of 18 USC 793(g)
and conspiracy to violate the laws of the United States, in
violation of 18 USC. 371 to wit; knowingly accessing a
computer without authorization or exceeding authorized
access and having obtained information protected from
disclosure for reasons of national defense or foreign
relations in violation of 18 USC 1030(a) and knowingly
stealing or converting any record of thing of value of the
United States or any department or agency thereof in
violation of 18 USC 641 " LINKSee alsoSee also

The FBI is targeting seven
civilians for criminal activity and/or espionage. Those
individuals include the "founders, owners, or managers of
WikiLeaks," according to the testimony of Special Agent Mark
Mander from US Army’s Computer Crime Investigative Unit
(CCIU) at the Article 32 Pretrial Hearing of US v Pfc.
Bradley Manning:

Defense: Whom else did you uncover doing
wrongdoing? Mander: Seven other civilians. The FBI is
potentially involved. I do not know what the FBI has
determined. Defense: Do they include the founders, owners,
or managers of WikiLeaks? Was WikiLeaks in this case?
Mander: Yes they are involved in certain aspects. LINK
Transcript

________________________________________

US
District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia forces
Twitter to hand over records that the Department of Justice
US Attorney deems relevant and material to a Department of
Justice criminal investigation of WikiLeaks

On December
14, 2010 Theresa Buchanan, a US Magistrate Judge for the US
District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, ordered
Twitter to turn over to the US Government, the non-content
communication information of Julian Assange; WikiLeaks;
Bradley Manning; Jacob Appelbaum, a developer for the Tor
project; Rop Gonggrijp, described in court papers as a Dutch
activist and businessman; and Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member
of the Icelandic parliament. LINKSee alsoSee also

On January 5, 2011, the Court
orders that the original December 14, 2010 Court Order be
unsealed, which thereby authorizing Twitter to disclose its
existence to its subscribers. LINKSee also

On January 4, 2012, District
Judge Liam O’Grady denies the petitioners’ motion to
stay the original December 14, 2010 Court Order and rules
that Twitter hand over the information for Jacob Appelbaum,
Rop Gonggrijp, and Birgitta Jonsdottir. LINK

________________________________________

US
Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia forces
Dyndaot to hand over records that the Department of Justice
US Attorney deems relevant and material to a Department of
Justice criminal investigation of WikiLeaks

On January 4,
2011, US magistrate judge Ivan D. Davis signs a Secret Court
Order issued to Dynadot, domain registrars for WikiLeaks.org
for all information they hold on WikiLeaks, Julian Assange,
and WikiLeaks.org between November 1, 2009 and January 4,
2011. LINK

________________________________________

Witnesses
stopped

David HouseIn June 2010, David House says he
is questioned both at his home and place of work in
Cambridge, MA by unnamed investigators for the US Department
of Defense, the Department of State, and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation. LINK

Beginning in September 2010,
according to his lawsuit against the Secretary of the US
Department of Homeland Security; Commissioner, US Customs
and Border Protection; and Director, US Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, David House “has been placed on a
watch list which has resulted in his being stopped for
questioning and searched each time that he enters the United
States following foreign travel.” LINK

On
November 3, 2010, David House and his girlfriend are met and
examined in the concourse of Chicago O’Hara by unnamed
customs agents, who extensively search their bags. They are
detained for questioning by two men, Marcial Santiago and
Darin Louck, who identified themselves as Homeland Security
Agents. House subsequently learned from Agent Santiago that
although Agent Louck identified himself as a Homeland
Security agent, he is, in fact, with the FBI Joint Terrorism
Task Force. House’s electronic products were seized at a
"border search". LINKSee alsoSee also

Jacob AppelbaumOn June
16, 2010, five DHS Agents show up at HOPE conference looking
for keynote speaker, Julian Assange, who was in fact unable
to attend and replaced by Jacob Appelbaum. According to
“Eric Corley, publisher of 2600 Magazine and organizer of
The Next HOPE conference in midtown Manhattan, said five
Homeland Security agents appeared at the conference a day
before WikiLeaks Editor in Chief Assange was scheduled to
speak.” LINK

On July 29, 2010, Jacob Appelbaum
is detained at Newark Liberty International Airport, and
questioned about Assange for three hours by agents from
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department
of Homeland Security, and Army CID. His laptop and three
cell phones were seized. LINKSee also

On August 1, 2010, two
unnamed FBI agents question Jacob Appelbaum at the Defcon
conference after his presentation about the Tor Project. The
two FBI agents question Appelbaum at Defcon in the presence
of Marcia Hoffman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
When he asks if his equipment seized at the airport on July
29, 2010 would be returned, the agents said, “We aren’t
involved in that; we have no idea.” LINK

On January 10, 2011 Jacob
Appelbaum is detained searched, and questioned by the US
Customs and Border Patrol agents at Seattle-Tacoma
International Airport upon re-entering country from Iceland.
LINK

Jeremie Zimmerman and Smari
McCarthyA friend of Julian Assange, Jeremie Zimmerman,
who had just filmed an episode for Julian Assange’s TV
show was stopped and questioned when entering the US. Smari
McCarthy, once a WikiLeaks volunteer, has also been stopped
while entering the US. McCarthy was later approached by
three US officials in Washington DC, and asked to become an
informer. LINK

________________________________________

Notable
Statements

White House

White House on November 29, 2010:
"[T]he stealing of classified information and its
dissemination is a crime," and "WikiLeaks and people that
disseminate information to people like this are criminals."
Robert Gibbs says elsewhere, "[T]hose that have been
involved in the stealing of and the dissemination of this
information are criminals.” LINKSee also

In answer to a questions as
to whether the administration will take legal action against
WikiLeaks, White House spokesperson, Robert Gibbs said,
"Obviously there is an ongoing criminal investigation about
the stealing of and the dissemination of sensitive and
classified information. Secondly, under the administration
— or I would say — should say administration wide, we
are looking at a whole host of things, and I wouldn’t rule
anything out." LINKSee also

The Vice-President of the
United States, Joseph Biden, said on “Meet the Press” on
December 19, 2010, Julian Assange is “closer to being a
high tech terrorist than, than the Pentagon Papers.” LINK

Department of Defense

The US
Cyber Counterintelligence Assessments Branch of the US
Army’s Counterintelligence Center published a
Counterintelligence Analysis Report in 2008 under the
auspices of the Department of Defense Intelligence Analysis
Program about WikiLeaks. The US Army’s Counterintelligence
report recommended that the “identification, exposure,
termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal
action against current or former insiders, leakers, or
whistleblowers,” because those actions could potentially
damage or destroy” the “center of gravity,” that is
“trust”, thereby deterring “others considering similar
actions from using the WikiLeaks.org Web site.” The
purpose of the report was assessing “the
counterintelligence threat posed to the US Army by the
Wikileaks.org Web site,” and concluded that WikiLeaks was
“subject to criminal sanctions” for “unauthorized
disclosure” of “National Security Information.” LINKSee also

The authenticity of the
report was confirmed by Lt. Col. Lee Packnett, an Army
spokesman. LINK

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff
Morrell on April 24, 2011: “It is unfortunate that several
news organizations have made the decision to publish
numerous documents obtained illegally by Wikileaks
concerning the Guantanamo (GTMO) detention facility. These
documents contain classified information about current and
former GTMO detainees, and we strongly condemn the leaking
of this sensitive information.” LINK

Department of State

Hillary
Clinton, Secretary of State on November 29, 2010: "The
United States strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of
classified information."

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of
State on November 29, 2010: “So let’s be clear: this
disclosure is not just an attack on America’s foreign
policy interests. It is an attack on the international
community – the alliances and partnerships, the
conversations and negotiations, that safeguard global
security and advance economic prosperity.” LINK

Senator Lieberman (R), Chair of
the House Homeland Security Committee and Governmental
Affairs Committee“Wikileaks’ deliberate disclosure
of these diplomatic cables is nothing less than an attack on
the national security of the United States, as well as that
of dozens of other countries. By disseminating these
materials, Wikileaks is putting at risk the lives and the
freedom of countless Americans and non-Americans around the
world. It is an outrageous, reckless, and despicable action
that will undermine the ability of our government and our
partners to keep our people safe and to work together to
defend our vital interests. Let there be no doubt: the
individuals responsible are going to have blood on their
hands. I stand in full support of the Obama
Administration’s condemnation of Wikileaks for these
disclosures. I also urge the Obama Administration — both
on its own and in cooperation with other responsible
governments around the world — to use all legal means
necessary to shut down Wikileaks before it can do more
damage by releasing additional cables. Wikileaks’
activities represent a shared threat to collective
international security.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D),
Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and
member of the Senate Committee on the JudiciarySenator
Dianne Feinstein Chair of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, member Senate Judiciary Committee, said in an
op-ed on December 7, 2010, entitled “Prosecute Assange
Under the Espionage Act”: “When WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange released his latest document trove—more than
250,000 secret State Department cables—he intentionally
harmed the U.S. government. The release of these documents
damages our national interests and puts innocent lives at
risk. He should be vigorously prosecuted for espionage. The
law Mr. Assange continues to violate is the Espionage Act of
1917. That law makes it a felony for an unauthorized person
to possess or transmit ’information relating to the
national defense which information the possessor has reason
to believe could be used to the injury of the United States
or to the advantage of any foreign nation.’” LINKSee also

Republican Party nominee for
Vice President in the 2008 presidential election and
governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin (R)Palin wrote on her
Facebook page on November 30, 2010 that Julian Assange is an
“an anti-American operative with blood on his hands” and
“questioned why the US authorities were not looking for
him in the same way that it had hunted suspected
terrorists.” According to the report by Martin Beckford at
the Telegraph, Palin “She accused the Obama administration
of ’incompetence’ and a ’strange lack of urgency’ in
not stopping the release of 250,000 leaked diplomatic cables
by WikiLeaks, given that it had already published sensitive
information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” LINK

Congressman Pete King (R),
Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee, member or the Permanent Select Committee
on IntelligenceRepresentative Peter King’s (NY)
November 29, 2010 Letter to Secretary of State Clinton
demanding WikiLeaks be designated a terrorist organization,
Letter to the US Attorney General demanding Julian Assange
be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, 18 USC § 793. LINKSee also

Congresswoman Candice Miller
(R), member of the House Homeland Security Committee and the
Unmanned Systems Caucus on December 1, 2010“It is time
that the Obama administration treats WikiLeaks for what it
is—a terrorist organization, whose continued operation
threatens our security. Shut it down. Shut it down. It is
time to shut down this terrorist organization, this
terrorist Web site, WikiLeaks. Shut it down. It is time to
shut down this terrorist organization, this terrorist Web
site, WikiLeaks. Shut it down, Attorney General Holder." LINK

Senator Mitch McConnell (R),
Minority Leader and member Senate Seclect Intelligence
Committeenand the Senate Appropriations Committee called
Assange is a “high-tech terrorist” on “Meet the
Press” on December 5, 2010LINK

Representative Steven King of
Iowa to Congressman Doug Lamborn (R) and Mr. Trent Franks of
Arizona on November 30, 2010“[I]t’s a pretty sticky
constitutional question on how we would deal with American
citizens in that category [material support], but it’s not
when we deal with someone like Julian Assange. An Australian
citizen could be put into that category, moved over to a
place offshore of the United States outside of the
jurisdiction of the Federal courts, the civilian Federal
courts in the United States, and adjudicated under a
military tribunal in a fashion that was designed by this
Congress and directed by this Congress.” LINK

John B. Bellinger III, a former
legal adviser to the State Department and the National
Security CouncilJohn B. Bellinger III, a former legal
adviser to the State Department and the National Security
Council says US should extradite from UK or wait till Julian
Assange is in Sweden on December 13, 2011: “The Swedish
warrant doesn’t necessarily have precedence. The U.S.
government must be considering that if it brings charges
against Assange—and I expect that they will do so, if they
have not, in fact, already secured sealed indictments—it
should ask for Assange’s extradition from the UK or wait
for him to be extradited to Sweden and then request his
extradition from Sweden. And they are certainly looking at
the technical aspects of the two extradition agreements
between the UK and Sweden and then considering the political
and legal atmosphere in both places.” LINK

Senator Newt Gingrich (R),
candidate for the Republican party presidential nomination,
former speaker of the US House of RepresentativesOn
December 3, 2010, Newt Gingrich, member of the Council on
Foreign Relations, former speaker of the House and a recent
Republican candidate for president said that Julian Assange
should be treated as an ’enemy combatant’ and that the
NSA should close down WikiLeaks:"What we should do is
treat Assange as an enemy combatant. Information warfare is
warfare. The National Security Agency should close down that
site, keep it closed down. Every time they try to reopen it
under a new name, they should close it down. We should wage
active information warfare against any effort to release
American secrets." LINK

Senator Lieberman, Chair of the
Senate Homeland Security Committee Senator Lieberman
statement of Amazon on December 1, 2010“This morning
Amazon informed my staff that it has ceased to host the
Wikileaks website. I wish that Amazon had taken this action
earlier based on Wikileaks’ previous publication of
classified material. The company’s decision to cut off
Wikileaks now is the right decision and should set the
standard for other companies Wikileaks is using to
distribute its illegally seized material. I call on any
other company or organization that is hosting Wikileaks to
immediately terminate its relationship with them.
Wikileaks’ illegal, outrageous, and reckless acts have
compromised our national security and put lives at risk
around the world. No responsible company – whether
American or foreign – should assist Wikileaks in its
efforts to disseminate these stolen materials. I will be
asking Amazon about the extent of its relationship with
Wikileaks and what it and other web service providers will
do in the future to ensure that their services are not used
to distribute stolen, classified information.” LINK

PayPal influenced by State
Department statement concerning illegality of
WikiLeaksPayPal’s VP of Platform Osama Bedier said,
“We have an acceptable use policy and their job is make
sure that our customers are protected, making sure that we
comply with regulations around the world and making sure
that we protect our brand. Bedier also said that PayPal’s
decision was influenced by the fact that the State
Department deemed WikiLeaks illegal in a letter sent on
November 27th [by Harold Koh, Legal Adviser of the
Department of State, to Julian Assange and Jennifer
Robinson], a statement that was not followed up on by
Yiannopoulos. It is still unclear what exact US laws
WikiLeaks is breaking.” LINK

“’On 27 November the State
Department, the US government, basically wrote a letter [to
Wikileaks] saying that [its] activities were deemed illegal
in the United States,’ PayPal’s Osama Bedier told the Le
Web conference in France.’And as a result our policy
group had to make the decision of suspending their
account.’ ’It’s honestly, just pretty straightforward
from our perspective and there’s not much more to it than
that,’ he said.’ LINK

Anonymous Congressional Officials
to Reuters about State Department late 2010 Congressional
Briefing regarding WikiLeaks“no damage” and
“bolster legal efforts to shut down the WikiLeaks website
and bring charges against the leakers”. An anonymous
congressional “familiar with the late 2010 briefings” by
the US State Department, told Reuters, “We were told (the
impact of WikiLeaks revelations) was embarrassing but not
damaging.” LINK

“A congressional official
briefed on the reviews said the administration felt
compelled to say publicly that the revelations had seriously
damaged American interests in order to bolster legal efforts
to shut down the WikiLeaks website and bring charges against
the leakers.” LINK

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